Saturday Night Lights was a first for Esi Ali – and his groom Tamiles Pezzim

We are proud that this article is part of a collaboration between HorseGrooms, Wellington International and Paper Horse.

The bond between horse and groom can be a powerful thing. For Tamiles Pezzim that was evident at Saturday Night Lights when she and her charge, Esi Ali, made their debut at the night class – and came away with the blue ribbon after Egypt’s Nayel Nassar steered the 10-year old Irish Sport Horse gelding to victory. It was also the first Saturday Night Lights win for Nayel.

“When you like the job, you are going to be emotional and nervous before you go to the ring, it doesn’t matter if it’s a big class or not,” said Tamiles aka Tammy. “You still get excited about going there. Everybody’s there watching. And you want everything to go well.”

To keep things on an even keel, Tammy tried not to change things up too much. “I tried to keep everything the same,” she said. “Even though it’s a big class and it’s important. But yeah, they feel the atmosphere and he 100 percent felt it.”

Earlier in WEF week 1 – the Winter Equestrian Festival held at Wellington International – Nayel and Ali had a rail down earlier in the week. For Tammy, it was no surprise that this had an impact on Ali’s mood. “Normally he doesn’t have rails,” she said. “And he just understands what’s going on. And it is weird the feeling he gives you when he has a rail down. He feels bad. He tries to avoid looking at you to stop thinking about it. It has to be an intelligent, sensitive horse to feel that. He is really smart. ”

When Tamiles arrived at Evergate Stables in New York, Ali was already there but fairly new to the barn. Since the other grooms already had horses designated to their care, Ali was available. Tammy remembers. “He was very special. He was always very quiet in the stable, but you could tell that he’s very sharp.”

From there on their friendship grew into an exceptional understanding that sees her leave him loose in his stall when she goes in to carry out daily tasks. “When I groom him – when I go in the stable to do something with him – I don’t like to tie him up. Because for me, it’s the same when you bring somebody into your house. You have to trust them, right? I’m in his house. Why should I tie him up?”

It is a level of trust that Tammy recognizes does not happen with every horse. She also looked after another Evergate’s star horse Monaco. As Ali, Monaco was also able to bond deeply with her.

“That’s something that you have to create with them,” she said. “Those kinds of horses when they look at you, they look you in the eye. Few horses do that. They follow you everywhere, and they look you in the eye like a dog does.”

Tammy’s journey began riding western horses in her native Brazil. From there her brother, who was working with showjumpers in Europe with Nelson Pessoa back in 2007, arranged a plane ticket for her to come over and visit. She found the showjumping “very interesting” and it was not long before she had a full-time job in Belgium. What started out as a “I will go for a year or a year and a half and see how it is…” turned into a career that saw her groom at the 2012 Olympics in London for Jamal Rahimov and ended up Stateside 15 years after.

“Everything’s going great. The entire team at Evergate is very nice, we are lucky to have such a good atmosphere!” she said. Tammy had joked with friends and even Nayel about going to celebrate the win in The Gallery – Wellington International’s nightclub. But she settled for an early(Ish) night after putting Ali to sleep. Instead, she waited for the next day to celebrate with her team mates at the farm. “We always have a beer and a nice meal to celebrate a win. And that’s great. I was the one during the night class, but I am very aware that none of that “night magic” would happen if wasn’t for everyone’s hard work at farm day to day.”

After the win, when Nayel was being interviewed about Ali, he was happy to bring Tammy into the conversation. “This is actually Tammy’s first Saturday Night Lights, yeah, so she was excited – Ali’s kind of her horse,” he said.

Being part of a team is what makes Tammy’s job enjoyable. “We are all a team working together,” she said. “If you’re in the right organization and you have a great environment, you want to do that extra. When you know that everyone is working together towards the same goals, things just flow differently.” 

This could be interesting:

The future is Saturday Night Lights for ESI Ali and Nayel Nassar